Backlash: A Turret Gunner Simulation

Backlash: A Turret Gunner Simulation is a video game in the action genre developed by Sanctuary Software Studio, Inc. and published by Sanctuary Software Studio, Inc. originally released in 1995. It is currently playable on DOS.

Backlash: A Turret Gunner Simulation is a direct clone of Wing Commander without the intriguing story dynamics and personalities that made it a classic space combat game.

Your job: climb into the spherical turret of a starship and defend it from an onslaught of drones, enemy ships, asteroids and minefields. As in the Wing Commander games, you'll have to manage shield and firepower ratios to conserve energy that is depleted when firing, and protect the ship against armor damage. Successfully completing missions will earn you monetary rewards to upgrade the ship and weapons systems before heading off on another dangerous mission. The game looks and plays well, but no more than average. The ships are not as detailed as in Wing Commander, and most of the designs are rather repetitive. The mission objectives aren't that interesting either, so you'll spend a lot of time just shooting at all the enemy ships that cross your path.

Overall, Backlash is a decent effort from a small shareware developer without a big budget, but ultimately it can't lift itself from the repetitive gameplay to be anything special. It's not recommended, though Wing Commander can enjoy the familiar concepts and gameplay in this lackluster clone.

It is possible that we have multiple downloads available when different versions exist.